India banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese-created apps on 29 June 2020.
The order came from India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. Officials said the apps threatened India’s sovereignty, integrity, defence, security, and public order, and accused them of transmitting user data without authorization to servers outside the country.
The timing followed a deadly military clash between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley, along the disputed India–China border. TikTok was the most prominent app on the list, but other well-known services included WeChat, UC Browser, SHAREit, Helo, Likee, and Shein.
A common mix-up is counting the entire ban list rather than the apps besides TikTok. The government banned 59 apps in total, so the number of other apps was 58. India later announced additional app-blocking rounds in 2020 and afterward, but those later totals are separate from the 29 June order.